Best 2006 films

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Sorry to say that I saw Inland Empire last night, and it bored the hell out of me.  It was similar to the experience of getting on an airplane for a 3-hour trip, only to realize that one has forgotten to bring a book to read.  During the 179 minutes of the film, my mind had ample time to wander.  I spent part of the time thinking about the plot of the movie Memento, which I'd seen on DVD the night before and really enjoyed.  I also made a mental grocery list of stuff to pick up on the way home.  But I spent most of the time thinking of how there was this film: overly long, plotless and characterless; and there's ATD, which has been similarly described by Kakutani and others.  What, I wondered, was the difference?   The difference, I think, is that on every page of Pynchon's book there are starting points for mental reveries about math, time-travel, light, anarchism, etc.  It's an exciting blueprint for thinking about, and thinking about how we think about, the world.  IE, on the other hand, is a collection of not always particularly evocative scenes, many of them repeated several times, without any connecting theme.  Lynch taped the scenes in no particular order, without a script and only decided in the editing stage what he wanted to use, and in what order.  He challenges the viewers to create their own meaning, where no meaning existed.  But if we're going to be held captive for 3 hours, flash things that can evoke reveries or associations: flip a series of tarot cards at us, for example.  Each scene was dragged out and basically uninteresting.  Judging from the reviews I've read (which mostly rave over it), the most evocative scene was where a bunch of hookers sing and dance to The Locomotion (my husband actually stopped snoring and sat up for that one).  But it's kind of a cheap trick for getting attention.  The series of scenes with people in rabbit suits got monotonous, especially since he's used this before.  I actually left the theater with a new respect for the average porn flick -- at least the!
 re's som
e semblance of a story there.


On the other hand, The Prestige was great -- even more enjoyable on the second go-round.  Science vs. magic.  Not very successful at the box office.

The Departed was ok.  Entertaining but forgettable.

How's the Russian cinema these days?  I saw a movie called The Return a few years ago, which was really great.  ANy recommendations?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>Sent: Dec 27, 2006 2:30 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Best 2006 films
>
>Somehow I haven't managed to see a lot of this year's movies, mostly I 
>watched old ones that I had wanted to see for a long time. Hence the query. 
>Please name couple-three 2006 movies which in your opinion are the best. 
>I'll try and watch some of these in the year 2007, time permitting. I WILL 
>definitely watch INLAND EMPIRE if Lynch finally speeds up its distribution. 
>Your subjective opinion and specific taste are welcome.
>
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